A short story about the life and reign of Caligula, origin of the widely known legends about him. ( )

A fascinating history from an almost contemporary source. From the way it was written it seems that it was written a generation or two after Caligula's Assassination, so unlikely to be completely accurate but a better source than many of the ones out there.

I think everyone knows a little about the story of Caligula, and this builds on that and offers some background on his family and his rise to Emperor, as well as detail about his many exploits, tantrums, forays, etc.

Hardly riveting, but interesting. ( )

A fascinating history from an almost contemporary source. From the way it was written it seems that it was written a generation or two after Caligula's Assassination, so unlikely to be completely accurate but a better source than many of the ones out there.

I think everyone knows a little about the story of Caligula, and this builds on that and offers some background on his family and his rise to Emperor, as well as detail about his many exploits, tantrums, forays, etc.

Hardly riveting, but interesting. ( )

He had a shrine with a life-sized golden image which was dressed each day in clothes identical to what he was wearing. He slept with his sisters and then denounced them as adulterers and banished them, forcing Romans to overbid on their property that he auctioned off. He voided the wills of persons who were said to have intended to make him their heir but died without having done so.

However, he is not known to have had a Twitter account.
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“Thus far we have spoken of him as a prince. What remains to be said of him, bespeaks him rather a monster than a man.” The Roman historian Suetonius wrote these words about ancient Rome’s most notorious emperor – Caligula. Reading the life of Caligula and his reign as the most powerful man in the world (less than a 4 year reign, from age 25-28 when he was assassinated) is one unforgettable experience. Since my primary interest is philosophy and not history, I will spare readers the gory details of his cruelty and sadism and offer my reflections linked with several quotes from the text I find particularly insightful.

"Having thus secured the imperial power, he fulfilled by his elevation the wish of the Roman people, I may venture to say, of all mankind; for he had long been the object of expectation and desire to the greater part of the provincials and soldiers, who had known him when a child; and to the whole people of Rome, from their affection for the memory of Germanicus, his father, and compassion for the family almost entirely destroyed." --------- The bitter irony is the Roman people and senate were overjoyed when Caligula finally became emperor after years of hardship and suffering under Tiberius. Gaius Caesar Caligula was primed to lead the population in a return to the golden age of Caesar Augustus.

Initially, Caligula performed admirable acts but then metamorphosis: a 25 year old man became a monster. Amongst his monstrosities, Suetonius relates, “He change the form of government from imperial to regal and began to arrogate to himself a divine majesty. He ordered all the images of the gods, which were famous either for their beauty, or the veneration paid them, among which was that of Jupiter, to be brought from Greece, that he might take the heads off, and put on his own." ---------- Ha! Having all the sculptures of the gods undergo a modest change: their heads become your head. Too bad Caligula didn’t take his mythology seriously or he would have known a human taking on the status of the gods has serious consequences.

"He also instituted a temple and priests, with choicest victims, in honor of his own divinity. In his temple stood a statue of gold, the exact image of himself, which was daily dressed in garments corresponding with those he wore himself. The most opulent persons in the city offered themselves as candidates for the honor of being his priests, and purchased it successively at an immense price. The victims were flamingos, peacocks, bustards, guinea-fowls, turkey and pheasant hens, each sacrificed on their respective days." ---------- And what is the use of being a god if you don’t have your very own temple and priests offering you sacrifices?

"He had thoughts too of suppressing Homer's poems: "For why," said he, "may not I do what Plato has done before me, who excluded him from his commonwealth?” He was likewise very near banishing the writings and the busts of Virgil and Livy from all libraries; censuring one of them as "a man of no genius and very little learning;" and the other as "a verbose and careless historian."" ---------- Well, my goodness; invoking Plato in an attempt to banish the poets and stifle the historians. This wish to remove criticism and creativity is true of all tyrants, ancient or modern, since tyrants recognize the giants of literature and history are, in a way, the true rulers of the people.

"In building his palaces and villas, there was nothing he desired to effect so much, in defiance of all reason, as what was considered impossible. Accordingly, plains raised to the height of mountains with a vast mass of earth, and the tops of mountains leveled by digging; and all these were to be executed with incredible speed, for the least remissness was a capital offense." –---------- The ultimate egotism: creating a personalized world accommodating your every whim. A world Caligula-ized.

"He was crazy both in body and mind, being subject, when a boy, to the falling sickness. When he arrived at the age of manhood, he endured fatigue tolerably well; but still, occasionally, he was liable to a faintness, during which he remained incapable of any effort. He was not insensible of the disorder of his mind, and sometimes had thoughts of retiring to clear his brain. What most of all disordered him, was want of sleep, for he seldom had more than three or four hours' rest in a night; and even then his sleep was not sound, but disturbed by strange dreams; fancying, among other things, that a form representing the ocean spoke to him. Being therefore often weary with lying awake so long, sometimes he sat up in his bed, at others, walked in the longest porticoes about the house, and from time to time, invoked and looked out for the approach of day." ---------- No matter how much power Caligula wielded over others, there was one person he could not control: himself. Turns out, if Caligula actually had the wisdom to listen to his dreams, he would have quickly recognized his evil as evil. Big, big mistake -- not listening to your dreams.

“For this favorite animal, besides a marble stable, an ivory manger, purple housings, and a jeweled frontlet, he appointed a house, with a retinue of slaves, and fine furniture, for the reception of such as were invited in the horse's name to sup with him. It is even said that he intended to make him consul.” ---------- One of the many reasons Romans, especially the senators, judged Caligula mad: the young emperor’s desire to make his horse the head of the senate.

"It is difficult to say, whether weakness of understanding, or corruption of morals, were more conspicuous in the character of Caligula. He seems to have discovered from his earliest years an innate depravity of mind, which was undoubtedly much increased by defect of education. He had lost both his parents at an early period of life; and from Tiberius' own character, as well as his views in training the person who should succeed him on the throne, there is reason to think, that if any attention whatever was paid to the education of Caligula, it was directed to vitiate all his faculties and passions, rather than to correct and improve them." ---------- Even in ancient times it was recognized how both nature and nurture played their part in forming a person. Suetonius sees how Caligula falls short on both counts: a basically twisted mind further corrupted by losing his parents at an early age and very bad education.


Suetonius available on-line: http://www.gutenberg.org/files/6400/6400-h/6400-h.htm#link2H_4_0005

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